Trucking Lore: Garbage backhauls

First of all, let me assure you that ALL of this is true. Back in the late 80's and early 90's, landfills in and around the NYC/Northern NJ area were closing, and trash had to be shipped to landfills several states away.

It was circa 1990, and I picked up an empty trailer from my company's Springfield, OH terminal. This trailer had been used for a garbage backhaul from some urban locale in New Jersey to a landfill somewhere in the area around Springfield. It seems they had stapled plastic sheeting to the floor and the plywood on the walls of the trailer, loaded it with bales of garbage, then at the other end removed the plastic sheeting, sprayed-out the trailer, and let it sit for a week with the doors open to dry out. They only did this with 'old' trailers. When I got the trailer, you could smell the garbage still! I understand that some drivers had these trailers rejected, and I think that after only a month, JB stopped taking garbage backhauls.

At the truckstops, though, people talked about garbage backhauls, and it seems it was popular with independent reefer O/O's of the time; you would pre-freeze your trailer to below 0°F, then freeze the garbage, and at the end the cleanup was easier and the stank was minimalized. However, the press got ahold of this unique money-making endeavor, and I a federal law was passed making it illegal to haul garbage in a trailer that also hauls food.